Tonight's all about mando pop

It's really interesting how much your music taste can change over time. I was reading this blog that someone wrote about how now they are 30 there are some albums they just can't listen to anymore. It's a bit like how some peopole used to like Take That back when they were in primary school and now it's just too embarrassing to mention (except online of course);)! I think though that it's mainly in reference to getting over the music of teenage and early 20s angst. I used to be really heavily into depressing music to the point that one ex-boyfriend actually played some music I had left at his place to his friends before they met me and they thought he was dating some emo chick. Now my music has changed and I have become an equal opporunity Asian music lover. K-Hip Hop and Rap, K-Ballads, Mando Pop, J-Heavy Metal - you mention it, I'll probably have heard of it. Having said that, I just looked up the US Billboard Hot 100 and of the top 10 I know Adele, Rihanna, Maroon 5 (but seriously, who even knew they were still making music?), David Guetta and Gym Class Heroes (and only because Cupid's Chokehold used to be all over My Space a thousand years ago!). The rest of the artists I have not even heard of.

Yesterday I was in the mood for K-ballads. Tonight is all about the Mando Pop. Of course, everyone loves the big names Jay Chou and Wang Lee Hom. But at the moment I am listening heaps to Jason Zhang and Da Mouth. Da Mouth is the best music to listen to while exercising.

Great singers and songs. They make me cry, put me to sleep at night and push me that extra kilometre.

Wang Lee Hom: Heartbeat (so romantic - *sigh*)


Da Mouth: Rock It (I love this band. They are so upbeat and their MVs crack me up!)


Jay Chou: Listen to Mama's Words (Very emotional - don't take your mum for granted)


Jason Zhang: This is Love

SG Wannabe *country*?

One of my students asked me at the end of class today if I like SG Wannabe. I do, and she referred me to their song LaLaLa. She and I have a very similar taste in Korean music. We both love the older groups and artists: Epik High, Leesang, Park Hyo Shin, Fly to the Sky and DBSK. I introduced her to Masa Mixes the other day and today she told me to check out SG Wannabe's LaLaLa and I think this is the first time I have ever heard... Korean country music. I am not quite sure what to think of it. I am actually at my mum's house, coz that's where I have to use the internet atm, and she just walked up to me and asked who it was and what nationality. 'It's not bad', she comments. Hmmm... I think I need to give it a few more plays to see if I like it or not.

Here it is.


Meanwhile here are some of my favourite Korean ballad songs.

Eru: White Snow


J-Walk ft. Miryo: Shout Out Love


Dragon N Tiger: The Love in my Heart

사랑 1st Birthday

Last week I went to my friends baby's first birthday. Korean style. Needless to say I was the only non-Korean there and didn't understand everything but it was so much fun:) It was at their church after the service and I went to help unnie set up before everyone came. It was catered with yummy Korean food and there were so many lovely guests. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. I knew about 10 of them because I had met them here and there so it wasn't like I was sitting in the corner all by myself. Phew! And the church friends were all amazingly welcoming and funny. I don't think I have laughed so much in a long time.
The happy family; Kelly unnie, Lee oppa and Sarang.

The birthday party went for about 2 hours and started with a speech from daddy followed by a slide show of pictures and music of Sarang's first year of life, prayers from the minister and eating.

In Korean culture the child picks an item from a selection placed in front of her and the guests have to guess which item will be picked and place their name in a bucket with the item in it. I picked the microphone. She picked the microphone. Yay... a singer in the making. For getting it correct I was given a big box of different juices.

After our hard work cleaning up a few of us relaxing in the church yard gasbagging as only women can. Funniest moment: Kay was telling me all afternoon that she was married to the good looking man at the party. Without me trying to even figure that out and get it wrong, I asked her what colour shirt he was wearing. She tells me it's blue and that was the colour of a cute guy's shirt so I pointed him out and asked 'Him?'. She looked at me and replied, 'I said the good looking one.'. Lol... woops my bad - lucky I asked. This photo was taken after she yells out to her husband '여보, Belinda says you are hot.' (Mind you, I still haven't figured out who he is by this stage). Haha... HIgh school humour never ends. I think he was embarrassed.

What an AMAZING day with such wonderful people who gave me an open invitation to their Korean luncheon after church services on Sundays. Yum:)

유미 임니다

Wednesday night was the last day I met up with 로미 unnie before she leaves for Korea and she sat me down and said to me we had to do something special. She wanted to give me a Korean name. How cute... I loved it. So my name is Belinda and the meaning of Belinda is 'beautiful' so she wanted to find a name that would mean the same thing in Korean. Apparently the way names are chosen is by looking at the Chinese meaning of the words. So she decided my Korean name is... 유미 (Yu-Mi). I think it's cute. So now I can introduce myself '유미 임니다' (Yu-Mi imnida)

She also made stickers to go on my laptop keys so that I can learn which Korean character each key is, which is why I have been able to type it now. Now I just have to practise! 화이팅!!

Teaching North Korea

Some of my students asked me to teach them about what life is like in North Korea. My eyes nearly popped out. I was so excited that they actually wanted to learn about something I am interested in; something I consider REAL history.

I have been reading so much about the topic lately my head is ready to cave in. This is one of the books I have been reading recently. Nothing to Envy: Real Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick.

It's based on a journalist's research and interviews with defectors from North Korea. While it tells the story of multiple people, I have really been drawn into the story about one girl who fled North Korea with her family leaving behind her boyfriend. She came from a poor, lower ranking family due to her father's status and the boyfriend came from a Japanese-Korean family who was very well off. He was being groomed to become a highly respected member of the party who would go to the best university in Pyongyang. It was such a contrast to read about his university life in Pyongyang where they had heated dorms, plenty of blankets and clothing as well as lighting until late in the night. her university had a high drop out rate. She found out by first hand experience that it was becaused people were malnourished, having not been fed enough, they had no heating so in winter they were often freezing in their beds. Many dropped out to stay alive and return home. So many more shocking stories are told within this book.

Anyway, of course, I had to skip to the end of the book to find out what happened to this couple. It was quite interesting that in North Korea, he would have been considered too good for her and of too high a status to have their marriage accepted by his family or society in general. She looked up to him in awe, knowing that he was her ticket to a better life. Of course, she was enamoured of him, he was a lovely person by all accounts in the book and she would think about him with regret and yearning even once she had defected and married in South Korea. It turns out that he also moved to South Korea and they met up. It was an unusual reunion; she drove up next to him on the street and rolled down the window and told him to jump in the car. They finally got to meet once again. The newness of it all soon wore away and she looked at him in a different light. Whereas in North Korea he was like a knight in shining armour; a man who any woman would kill for with such a promising future in a dark and depressing land, in South Korea his studies were obsolete they were so out-of-date and it seemed he had such a limited future. They both enjoyed the freedon associated with South Korea and what that meant in terms of individualism. However they both claim to still have an aim of returning to North Korea to bring about change with the fall of the current regime. I found this quite interesting. I am not sure if everyone's sense of nationalism is so strong that afterhaving experienced the modern living in one of the most developed countries in the world they could still return to their home country to bring about change. I think it's something to be admired.

Yoon Han Untouched

I am really liking this album at the moment from Yoon Han called Untouched. I am not sure what it is about this album that has me listening to it most nights while I go to sleep, but it is really good.

Just Friends.

Sweet Potato Cake With Love

Every Wednesday night I visit Romy unnie and Giman oppa and last night we decided to make sweet potato cake. So we headed over to Kelly unnie’s apartment and had a girls cake making night. I LOVE sweet potato cake and I didn’t think that our homemade cake could possibly beat the taste of the sweet potato cake you can get from Hello Happy but I was wrong. It was so much nicer.
Before we started on the cake we thought it was best to make something savoury so that we didn’t just eat cake all night. So we made German sausage rolls. Here’s what they looked like before after after being baked. So yummy with mustard and tomato sauce.

Then we started on the cake. Kelly unnie had already boiled the sweet potatoes so Romy unnie and I just had to pull the skin off.

We were making two cakes so we needed to make bread crumbs out of a double sponge using the blender.

Meanwhile, both Kelly unnie and Giman oppa whipped the cream. We then had to mash the potato and mix it with the cream, some cake crumbs and pine nuts. Another double sponge was cut in half and jam layered on it.

Next we layered on the potato mix, placed another sponge on top, another layer of jam and another layer of potato mix. Then we used the remaining crumbs to spread over the top of the last layer of potato. Finish off the cake with some cream and nuts. Put cling wrap around it and pop it into the freezer for anywhere between an hour and three. Delicious! And that is how you make sweet potato cake.

We had some fun with Sarang while oppa had a sleep with Giwon.

I always have a great time with these wonderful people. I’ll definitely miss them next year. <3

Koukou Debut - High School Debut

I was in Officeworks the other day and as I was walking out two employees were talking about this computer game they were playing. They were so intense about the levels they got up to and the characters they would play as and how one of their friends was so like one of the characters in real life that they suggested to that friend that they play as them in the game. Anyway, needless to say, I though... oh my goodness. Do people really talk about that stuff? And then I thought that some of the stuff I am interested in no one else is and so hence, I'll blog about it, coz no one I know really wants to hear about it.
So a student of mine who just graduated gave me a manga about a young girl who has a malignant tumor and it has to be removed, but in the process she will lose her voice and never be able to sing again. Of course, her goal in life is to become a famous singer. I digress. It made me want to start reading some manga. I gave it a go a few years back and got through one series and have never picked one up since.
The Japanese movie High School Debut looks interesting. Unfortunately they have not made English subtitles to this movie - if they have and you know where I can find them, please let me know - so I have not been able to watch it yet.

I found the manga though and have been reading that. It's okay.

It's not as good as I thought it would be. It was going well. This girl (Haruna) really wants to find a boyfriend but because she has been a bit of a tomboy all ther life and played alot of sports she hasn't really had the opportunity to indulge in a girl's lifestyle so she finds it hard to meet guys. She asks Yoh to tutor her in attracting guys, because of course, he knows what guys want. Anyway turns out that they end up liking each other even though the condition of Yoh tutoring Haruna is that she would not fall for him. Sounds fine right? Except that she doesn't know how to act around him and go about dating and he has had only slightly more experience and also does not know how to go about being in a relationship. Solution? They read Shojo Manga to see what characters in the stories do on dates. And that is where my attention to this series ended. I think I am about 8 volumes in and can't finish it. I don't really think people want to read about 2 people bumbling through a relationship. I get that this is TEEN manga but still; it's pretty lame. I hope that in the movie they change the characters slightly so they are not both weak characters.

Moochi

I LOVE MOOCHI! Not Mochi the Japanese Rice Cake but MOOCHI Frozen Yoghurt.

As a regular Strathfield person I have seen this place since its opening a few months ago and have always wanted to try it. A few weeks ago my unnies took me there and we got this massive container of frozen yoghurt and fruit. It was beautiful. I have wanted to expose all of my friends to it because it is JUST THAT GOOD!

For the past few Saturdays I have been doing the Clovelley to Bondi coastal walk and have both times convinced my friends to stop by Strathfield to try this MUST HAVE yoghurt. Both friends loved it:)

Tonight I took some teachers I work with there after dinner in the Bakehouse Quarter. They were a bit hesitant at first; even going so far as to think up ways of getting out of trying this frozen yoghurt that I think sounded weird to them. Now I know it's huge in America but in Australia we don't really have frozen yoghurt shops. Needless to say, they LOVED it.

Here is the one I had. Original yoghurt (love the tanginess) with strawberries, almonds and blueberries. If you ever go there you really have to try it with almonds. THE BEST.

I intended to take a photo before I started eating it. As you can see I forgot until half way through because it is so yummy I just had to have it.

They come in 4 flavours at the moment; original, pomegranate, green tea and mango. I think the mango is a limited edition flavour though. Additionally, you can add different types of fruits, nuts and seeds, as well as chocolate. I have not tried it with chocolate. I can't imagine chocolate yoghurt. The fruit ones are so refreshing.

If anyone gets to Strathfield anytime soon, check it out. Plus the people working there are really nice:) Don't be dissuaded from going in. There is usually a long line up, especially at night, but you get served pretty quickly and it is worth it. Although it may sound like it; I do not actually work there! Just want to share the Moochi love:)

The Man From Nowhere - Love Me Not

I am not really daisy picking about whether or not a man loves me. I promise.

Two of my favourite Korean films are The Man from Nowhere and Love Me Not. Interesting choices considering I am usually a romantic comedy girl, but these two grabbed me; particularly Love Me Not.

The Man from Nowhere is an action starring top actor and heartthrob, Won Bin, and was a great success in the Korean Boxoffice. Won Bin stars as an ex-secret service agents turned pawn shop owner after his wife and unborn child were killed by criminals who were after him. He becomes reclusive and his only hold on reality is through a unique bond between himself and a neglected child in his building. When the child and her mother are abducted by a drug dealing/child trafficking/organ harvesting organisation and the mother later found dead in the boot of his car with her organs removed, Won Bin tries to save the little girl. [Spoiler Alert] Utterly predictable, he goes up against the criminal organisation leaving a trail of dead bodies behind. The police are chasing him and the crime bosses. Heartbreaking scenes of children forced to become drug runners on the promise of freedom, passing out from the chemicals while making drugs while the adults all wear gas masks, and their excitement when they are told they are being reunited with their parents only to see them in the morgue in the next scene. It's horrible to think that this actually does go on in some places around the world. Anyway, Won Bin brings down the crime organisation and the film ends with a paternal scene between him and the girl where they are surrounded by police waiting to take him to prison and he is given a last moment with her during which he buys her stationary; a reference to earlier in the film where it's mentioned that this is what all the fathers do for their children. Sad movie but really good. A must see.

Love Me Not, on the other hand, is a dark drama about the development of a man's character, and although starring two relatively popular stars including the Korean's little sister Moon Geun-Young, it was a flop. This is the story of Julian (Kim Joo-Hyuk), a playboy who lures women with his charm only to steal from them or convince them to give him all their money. He is threatened by loansharks: pay back his debt in one month or he will be killed. One of his friends who was estranged from his family dies and Julian visits the family pretending to be the returning heir to the family fortune. However, complications arise when he realises that there is a daughter in the family; supposedly his sister. She is blind so he thinks he can deceive her into believing that he is her brother. She secretly knows that he is Julian, a man who her real brother admired and wrote about to her before his death, but she pretends he really is her brother. She falls for him and he starts to feel guilty about his deception and falls for her. It's a weird love, not really convincing as a romantic love, more of a soulmate love that transforms him. [Spoiler Alert] She needs an operation to save her life and he needs to make the decision as to whether he should use the money to pay back the loan sharks, flee or support her. He decides to pay for her operation, leave her a note that she is not meant to read until after the operation and flee the country. Of course, she reads it prior to the operation, thinking she may die on the operation table and never know his true feelings. This gives the loan sharks time to capture her and ring Julian, who is about to get on a plane, and threaten her life if he does not return. He goes to a club to save her and dies from a stab wound while she is cradling him in her arms, unseeing, while the loan shark stands next to her. You can tell by the plot why it was a flop at the box office but it was actually a really great film and I recommend you give it a try. I love the changes in Julian.

Next: Haunters with Kang Dong Won and while I am in a Won Bin mood; Taegukgi.

Any suggestions?

So what does getting ready for Korea really mean?

With two and a half months left before I leave for South Korea, you'd think I have plenty of time to get organised and ready to move to another country. For me the preparation in the upcoming months include:

1. Getting my Visa sorted; this includes getting photos taken, organising the paperwork and taking a trip to the consulate.



2. Learning some Korean. I have been to Korea before and I know you don't need to be able to speak the language but I'd still like to try. I have wonderful friends who are teaching me but unfortunately I am not the best language student out there.



3. Cooking Korean food. I have mastered japchae, egg roll, korean pancake and dakgalbi and that is about it at the moment. Unlucky for my family and friends, who often double as taste testers.



4. Buying HEAPS of clothes to take with me. This I am quite adept at doing. TOO adept, or so my credit card keeps telling me.



5. Counting down the days until I leave! I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!

I have been so fortunate to meet two lovely Korean families through a friend who returned to Seoul after living in Sydney for a year. These amazing people are so welcoming and friendly and I have secretly adopted them as my second family. In terms of helping me get ready to live in Korea, they are the ones who have been teaching me Korean, showing me how to cook and sharing their culture with me. Sitting on heated floor mats has almost become second nature as has offering and receiving things with two hands, which I have noticed I even do at work now, and ending phone calls with extended sounds to indicate my reluctance to hang up is no longer unusual. We've also had plenty of giggles over girly conversations about Korean and American actors and their varying degrees of manliness/hotness, makeup, clothes and guys. We've spent nights watching Korean dramas, playing Go-Stop and drinking makguli. But one thing they said is a MUST to be prepared for before moving to Korea is the noribang.

The noribang is basically a private karaoke room. My language lessons have now become Korean singing lessons. The song they are trying to teach me is one of my favourites; Park Hyo Shin's Snow Flower. This is not exactly the easiest song to remember, or as I have found out, sing in tune to. Especially if you are tone deaf and can't speak the language. Oppa kindly pointed out though, that my failure at this was not a Korean problem, just a singing one. Here is the song:




So, what do the next few months have in store for me?

1. Visa


2. Korean singing


3. Cooking


4. Shopping


5. Counting down

2 months and 20 days!